So, Bethlehem, with candle three,
Are you afraid? Or are you free?
Do Christian-killers in the news
Make you a slave? Or do you choose
With Christ that they will make you brave?
What do you fear the most? The grave?
Did Jesus die and rise for this?
Or that the certain hope of bliss
Beyond the bullets and the blood
Would bless this planet with a flood
Of fearless sacrifice? What gun
Can cut us off from Jesus? None!
Nor tribulation or distress,
Nor danger, sword, or nakedness.
Though we were killed like sheep all day,
The Shepherd of our souls holds sway.
And when he comes, it will be plain
That none of us has died in vain.
The body that was pierced and torn,
Never forget, will be reborn.
John Piper
Today is the 200th anniversary of John Newton’s death.
- John Newton wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.”
- He counseled William Wilberforce to stay in politics to fight the slave trade.
- He never gave up on the suicidal William Cowper who gave us “There Is A Fountain Filled with Blood” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” and “O For a Closer Walk with God.” He partnered with Cowper in writing a collection of Olney Hymns for their people. Cowper could not carry it through. Of the 300 hymns we have today 233 are from Newton.
- When Henry Martyn came to him for counsel before entering on his mission to Persia (and dying there at age 31) he asked Newton about the opposition he was likely to meet with. Newton answered that “he supposed Satan would not love me for what I was about to do.”
- He was a tender pastor and friend to those who knew him.
Newton was the captain of a slave trading ship before he became a pastor. To the end of his life he was still marveling that he was saved and called to preach the gospel of grace. From his last will and testament we read:
I commit my soul to my gracious God and Savior, who mercifully spared and preserved me, when I was an apostate, a blasphemer, and an infidel, and delivered me from the state of misery on the coast of Africa into which my obstinate wickedness had plunged me; and who has been pleased to admit me (though most unworthy) to preach his glorious gospel. (Cited in The Roots of Endurance, pg 45)
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley wrote more than 6,500 hymns and is the author of one of our most famous Christmas carols, “Hark the Herald, Angels Sing.” Wesley wrote this carol when there was a great need for Christmas carols in England. In 1627 The English Puritan parliament had abolished Christmas and the hymns that pertained to that “worldly festival.” The church was left with a void of Christmas hymns and Wesley wrote this hymn in 1738. This hymn not only helps us to sing the praises of Jesus birth but also teaches Biblical doctrine. Can you see the truths of Scripture in the stanzas of the hymn? The virgin birth, Christ’s deity, the immortality of the soul, the new birth, and Christ-like living are all presented in this hymn, “Hark the Herald, Angels Sing.”
Hark the herald, angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild – God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Christ, by highest heav’n adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail t’incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness;
Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
Come, Desire of nations, come! Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conq’ring seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head,
Adam’s likeness now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place,
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love.
Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing has been for many years the recessional hymn of the annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was also sung at the end of the animated Christmas special, A Charlie Brown Christmas by the entire Peanuts gang, and all three verses were included at the end of the book version.
Read an outstanding study of the theology in this cherished Christmas carol.